When we eventually look back at why the Toronto Maple Leafs missed the playoffs this season, fingers will point in all directions. But with the team lacking a No. 1 centre, a general lack of scoring is likely to receive most of the blame.

The 10th-place Leafs are 21st in goals (2.63) and 24th on the power play (15.6% success rate). They have been shutout a season-high 11 times. And they do not have a single forward among the league’s top 35 scorers.

So scoring was an issue. Or was it?

Strangely enough, the Leafs could be one of only three teams — Anaheim Ducks and the New York Islanders are the others — to have three 30-goal scorers this season.

Phil Kessel scored his 30th against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, while Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin each have 29s. If all three reach that mark, it would be the first time since 1995-96, when Mike Gartner (35 goals), Mats Sundin (33) and Doug Gilmour (32) all had 30 or more.

So what does this mean?

Well, it obviously means that more than one player is pulling the load. But it also means that even with three guys doing the pulling, the load is still not budging.

Heading into the season, it was expected that the bulk of the offence would fall on Phil Kessel’s shoulders. He was supposed to score 40 goals and be the No. 1 scoring option. But Kessel has been the definition of streaky — he has endured two seven-game scoring slumps and another that lasted twice as long — forcing others to step up.

While Grabovski, Kulemin and Clarke MacArthur (20 goals) have done just that, the Leafs are not getting enough offensive contributions from the rest of the team.

• More and more, it is looking like Joffrey Lupul has found a home in Toronto.

Lupul, who was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks (with prospect Jake Gardiner) for François Beauchemin, has eight goals and 16 points in 25 games. But as the stakes have risen, so has Lupul’s game.

It is a quality that general manager Brian Burke has seen before.

“The thing that I like best about him is I think he’s a great playoff player,” said Burke, who had Lupul when he led the Ducks in goals during the 2006 playoffs. “In the conference final, he was our best forward. So I’m not surprised that he’s stepping up now, because he likes big games. We played Colorado [in the conference semi-finals] and we beat them 4-3 in overtime in the third game, and he had all four goals. He’s a money player.”

Funny enough, it was money that led Lupul (US$4.25-million) from Philadelphia back to Anaheim and then to Toronto.

“I talked to [Flyers GM] Paul Holmgren and I said, ‘Why’d you guys move Lupul?’ “ said Burke. “And he said, ‘Money. We were really happy with him, but we had to prioritize our money. That was the only reason.’

“I think good players sometimes need the proper opportunity.”

• Wonder if Burke and Dave Nonis exchanged high-fives after the Vancouver Canucks clinched the Presidents’ Trophy last week.

Burke, who was the Canucks GM from 1998 to 2004, drafted Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa, and traded for Sami Salo.

Nonis, who was the GM from 2004 to 2008, acquired Roberto Luongo and Alex Burrows, and drafted Cory Scheneider, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen and Alexander Edler.

That is nearly half the team.

• The playoffs are no longer a reality for at least one Toronto team. The Leafs’ AHL affiliate was officially eliminated from the post-season Sunday, missing the playoffs for the second straight season.

Judging by the amount of amount of players the Marlies lost to call-ups — James Reimer, Keith Aulie, Nazem Kadri, Darryl Boyce, Joey Crabb, Matt Lashoff and Jay Rosehill — it is hard not to see why.

“That’s a shame, because [head coach] Dallas [Eakins] has done a great job there,” Burke said. “Several of the key guys that we signed for him are with us.”

• Let the discussion for the Hart Trophy continue. The three New York-area chapters of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, which votes on most of the major NHL awards, is boycotting the process this year to support a blogger who was stripped of his credentials earlier this season by the New York Islanders. The rest of the PHWA decided to go ahead with the voting during a Sunday conference call.

It is not that the PHWA does not support journalist Chris Botta, a former Islanders employee whose credentials were taken away after he criticized GM Garth Snow. The PHWA did not want to risk its privilege to vote on major awards.

The question now becomes how this will affect Michael Grabner’s chances of winning the Calder Trophy?